Dudh Puli or Doodh Puli is one of the most famous and delicious Pithe Puli prepared in Bengal during Makar Sankranti celebration. It is a very unique styled stuffed dumpling of Bengal. The stuffing is generally made of coconut and date palm jaggery and the shell is made of rice flour. But surprisingly these dumplings are not fried or steamed but boiled in thick milk and flavored with again date palm jaggery.

It is one of those traditional desserts from West Bengal, India which made our childhood memories sweeter and turns our present day bit sad for its absence. It is rarely available now; nobody makes them at home except if you are lucky enough to have your grandmother around. But some kind enough (??) sweet shops make these kind of signature sweets on special occasions like Makar Sankranti. But everything has a price tag. And not to mention these shops keep the fair part of the price for the sake of tradition.

So why not try Dudh Puli or Doodh Puli this year at home? Here is the traditional recipe of Dudh Puli or Doodh Puli for you all.

I had already described the process of preparing the ‘filling’ in my previous post of Patishapta with step by step picture. I’m just copy pasting the text here for quick access. If you are preparing it for the first time, I will suggest you to go through the pictorial edition first.

Make tiny pieces of the jaggery. It will help the coconut to blend with it faster. Take a large pan and heat it on medium flame. Add desiccated coconut and dry roast for 2-3 mins on medium-low flame. Add jaggery/sugar/condensed milk into pan, whichever you are using. Try to mix it with the coconut flakes.

Once you notice jaggery-coconut mixture is not sticking to the pan any more, increase the flame to medium and stir non-stop for 1-2 mins. Switch off the flame sprinkle and transfer immediately into a flat wide palate to cool off.

When the mixture is cool enough to handle but still warm take 2 tbsp of the filling in your palm and give it the oval shape. Keep the prepared balls in a flat plate.

Now move forward for the trickiest part of the dish, the shell or puli.

For the shell/puli:

Take the rice flour in a large mixing bowl and add hot water in it. The water is too hot to cause damage on your skin so be careful on that. While pouring the water with one hand keep stirring the flour with a ladle from another hand.

Now try to mix the flour and water with the ladle quickly. It is better to use wooden ladle as the water is very hot. Try to knead the dough with your hands if you can otherwise smash it with the ladle for few mins first. By the time the temperature will drop and then knead quickly before it dries out.

Make small balls out of the dough quickly and keep them in the same bowl. Cover the bowl with clingfilm to avoid exposure to air. If the dough is not covered properly it will be hard and cold.

Now take a ball at a time on your palm and press it gently between your two palms. It will shape like a circular disc.

Press it with your fingers to make it thin. Place one oval shaped stuffing in the middle of the disc.

Press the two opposite wings together. It will look like half-moon. Seal the edges by pinching with your fingers.

Now roll the puli/dumpling in your palms and it will be shaped like the picture below. Follow the same with rest of the dough. While working with one puli/dumpling keep others covered.

For the kheer/milk:

Boil milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan and then simmer on very low flame until it reduces to half of the original volume. It is preferable to keep the milk on simmer before you start working on stuffing and shell. Thus you will save a hell lot of your precious time.

Once the milk is reduced add puli/dumplings one by one into the milk carefully. Cook it on medium flame for 7-10 mins. Stir in between very gently because pulis are very delicate at this point. Soon you will notice puli/dumplings are changing color and also they have started to float on top one by one. This means it’s time to pull it off; your puli/dumplings are cooked.

Remove the pan from flame and add the jaggery into the milk very gently and stir very slowly. Be careful not to break the puli/dumplings apart. When jaggery is dissolved place the pan back on the flame; sprinkle the crushed green cardamom and cook on medium low flame for another 5-10 mins or until the milk reached to your desired consistency. Don’t keep the milk and jaggery mixture on high flame, milk will curdle in that case. Switch off the flame and allow it to come to room temperature naturally.

Transfer to serving bowls and serve at room temperature. Some people like it warm too. But never serve cold, the puli/dumplings will be hard in that case. Though this Dudh Puli or Doodh Puli tastes best when fresh, it can be stored up to 2-3 days if refrigerated in air-tight container. Just microwave it for 30-60 secs before serving.

Thank you so much for your recipe. I have tried your Patishapta recipe. I have something to know :Is there any alternative of khoya?What is the quantity of water in the crepe batter?Is there no need to add salt in the batter?I have used powdered milk in place of khoya, put the pithas in fridge but next day i saw some liquid cominf from the pitha, why it happened?

Hi,a> Khoya or mawa is used to enhance the richness in taste. It's completely optional. Patishapta tastes good with stand alone coconut-jaggery mixture also. You can use milk powder instead of khoya (half the amount mentioned for khoya) or use some grated chenna (homemade paneer).b> I use milk for the crepe batter instead of water to enhance the taste and I start adding little by little.c> I don't use salt in the batter as I use jaggery in filling which already has slightly smokey sweet-salty flavor. If you want to cut down the sweetness from batter, use pinch of salt.d> It is very common thing to happen with patishapta. As the filling is not completely dry, it always hold back some of the liquid from jaggery which is released later. Even if you warm it up, you will notice more liquid is coming out of it. It's just part of the dish. Next time try to cook the filling little longer to dry up more liquid, if you don't prefer it. But take care not to make it too dry, keep it moist.

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I’m Rimli and welcome to Scratching Canvas, the digital reflection of culinary and travel journal of my life through my lens. I’m the heart & brain behind this blog, Scratching Canvas. I cook, I click, I shoot, I blog and I share. Thanks for visiting. Stay here and make yourself comfortable. See you around! Click to know me better